


Grey Lantern

by sophene



Category: Batman (Comics), Green Lantern (Comics), Justice League - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-04-05 02:07:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19038985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophene/pseuds/sophene
Summary: Hal Jordan is flying through the solar system toward Earth when he meets someone new.





	Grey Lantern

Hal was navigating through the Solar System’s main asteroid belt when he noticed a dim grey light shining not too far away.

Ordinarily a shining light in space wouldn’t be enough to catch his attention. But as he glanced at the light, and then looked back and glanced at it again, something told him that this was no distant star. Turning around, he flew toward the grey light, ready to make a construct in case whatever it was turned out to be dangerous.

But what Hal found when he approached the grey light was not a threat, but a person. She had long brown hair and light brown skin, and she appeared to be wearing a hoodie and pajama pants. She couldn’t have been older than 25. Her wide brown eyes were staring unblinking into the endless expanse of space.

_She’s dead,_ he thought, feeling sick. But how did a human woman’s body end up floating around in the asteroid belt?

As he got closer, he noticed there was a white symbol on her chest. Both the pajama pants and the hoodie were grey, and no, it wasn’t his imagination that she was glowing—dimly, but still enough that she had caught his attention. And the symbol on her hoodie looked suspiciously like a lantern symbol.

“Hey man,” the body said.

Hal let out a little yell of surprise. She was looking at him all of the sudden, but he only had her attention for a moment, and then she went back to staring into space.

“Sorry,” the woman said. “I didn’t mean to scare you. You’re Green Lantern, right?”

Hal flew closer to her and said, “Yes I am. And you are?”

“Vanessa Chavez, but you can call me Grey Lantern.”

“Grey Lantern?” Hal said, circling the woman. “I’ve never heard of a Grey Lantern.”

“Yeah, there’s not many Grey Lantern rings. I’m the only human Grey Lantern currently.”

Hal frowned at her, cocking his head inquisitively.

Grey Lantern was just spinning in space, as slowly and leisurely as if she was one of the asteroids. As he watched, she bumped into one of them and spun away, saying, “Ouch.”

“What is it exactly that you do, Grey Lantern?” Hal asked.

“Oh, not a lot. Mostly I just hang out here. Sorry I didn’t make it to that whole Blackest Night ordeal. I meant to come, but I had a really bad headache that day and I was tired. You know how it goes,” she said.

“Uh...not really. Does your...Grey Lantern Corps have an oath?”

“Oh, for sure. Through dreary days and sleepless nights no joy shall disrupt my plight. Every soul weary of the fight, be revealed by Grey Lantern’s light.”

_Cheerful_ , Hal thought.

“So...what do you do exactly?” he asked.

Grey Lantern shrugged her shoulders.

“Not much. I got the Grey Lantern ring three years ago, right around when I lost my job. Then I found out my girlfriend was cheating on me with my cousin, and I’ve pretty much just been hanging out ever since.”

Hal made a face and said, “Out here? Alone?”

“Yeah.”

“How come your ring hasn’t lost power?” he asked.

“It loses power if I do things. It doesn’t seem to mind if I just float around out here.”

_Jesus_ , Hal thought.

Without thinking about it too hard, Hal pulled out the communicator he’d been given for Justice League business. He floated a ways away from Grey Lantern for some privacy, and she didn’t seem to notice that he was leaving. Then he called.

His luck sucked, because of course the person who was on duty was—

“ _Lantern. What do you want?_ ”

“Nice to talk to you too, Spooky,” Hal told Bruce. “I’m out in the asteroid belt and I have a problem.”

“ _Why didn’t you call the other Lanterns_?” Bruce asked.

Hal floated back towards Grey Lantern.

“Because it’s a human problem.” Then Hal was next to her again so he said, “Hey Vanessa? Say hi to Batman.”

“Hi Batman,” Grey Lantern said, her voice monotone.

“ _I don’t understand_ ,” Bruce said.

“Vanessa is a Grey Lantern. The only human Grey Lantern, according to her.”

“ _There’s no such thing as a Grey Lantern_.”

“That’s what I thought, and yet, here we are. Where are you from, Grey Lantern?”

“Lubbock, Texas.”

Sheesh. No wonder she was depressed.

“How’d you get the ring?” Hal asked her.

“I didn’t really have to do anything. Didn’t get out of bed for a few days, and suddenly the ring was there. Said I had great potential for experiencing suffering or something, blah blah blah. Then I put the ring on and I sort of drifted out of Earth’s atmosphere. Sometimes I get hungry so I go back, but whenever things get a little too overwhelming I can just...float away.”

Hal didn’t say anything, and there was a long, calculating silence coming from the Watchtower. Suddenly Hal remembered about Bruce’s hundreds of children. Maybe it was a good thing he’d caught Spooky on duty after all.

“ _Can you bring Grey Lantern back to Earth_?” Bruce finally asked.

“Sure thing. Hey Vanessa, want to go for a ride?” he asked her.

Vanessa shrugged. Hal took that as a yes and he made a rope with his ring. He tied the rope around her waist, and Vanessa didn’t complain, or didn’t even seem to notice what he was doing.

“Alright, I got her,” Hal said.

Bruce grunted and said, “ _I’ll have someone take over here and meet you in Gotham_.”

“Sounds like a date,” Hal said, and hung up on Batman.

Then he smiled at Vanessa and said, “Hey, V. So how do you feel about going to meet Batman?”

Grey Lantern hummed something unintelligible under her breath and said, “Yeah, I mean if we have to. Or I could just stay here, I’m good.”

“Yeah, no, we’re not going to do that,” Hal said, and started pulling Vanessa back to Earth.

**Author's Note:**

> We were having a convo one day in our batchat about what color ring we would have if the Lantern rings were real and we came to the conclusion that they would need a new color of ring, the Grey Lantern ring, for the depressos. And that's where poor Vanessa came from.


End file.
